Metallica, Lamb of God, and The Sword at Key Arena

Jason got us row 5 tickets for $60, day of show. It took me over an hour to get there, regardless that I live only 12 miles from the venue. We missed The Sword completely, but caught the last half of Lamb of God’s set.

Lamb of God was good. Not as good as when they were headlining the show I saw in Spokane at the Big Easy in 2007 mainly because their sound equipment was nowhere near as extravagant as Metallica’s. Seemed like they had their jam-room equipment onstage, whereas Metallica had every speaker in the building hooked to their shit.

Metallica was so fucking loud and badass, though they sounded sloppy/lazy on most of their older solos and seemed to be off-time when entering older choruses. No songs off Load, Reload, or St. Anger were played. It was awesome when they went from “Master of Puppets” right into “Blackened”. I was basically screaming every word to all the older songs (hadn’t listened to the new album enough to know the lyrics yet). And Lars is the biggest Diva in metal.

There was no beer “at request of the tour”.

Setlists

The Sword

?

Lamb of God

1. Hourglass
2. Laid to Rest
3. Walk With Me in Hell
4. Ruin
5. Overhauled
6. Now You've Got Something to Die For
7. Redneck
8. Black Label

Metallica

1. That Was Just Your Life
2. The End of the Line
3. Creeping Death
4. Harvester of Sorrow
5. One
6. Broken, Beaten & Scarred
7. Cyanide
8. Sad But True
9. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
10. Wherever I May Roam
11. The Day That Never Comes
12. Master of Puppets
13. Blackened
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter: Sandman
16. Motorbreath
17. Die, Die My Darling
18. Seek & Destroy

My ears and voice were fucked for several days after the show. Good times.